Apple: Breach 'not behind leaked celebrity photos,' firm says

The leaking of explicit celebrity photos and videos was not the result of breaches in the security of Apple's computer systems, the company has said.

The US tech giant said none of the cases it had so far investigated were a result of its iCloud or Find my iPhone systems being hacked but as a result of a "very targeted attack" on the security procedures of celebrity accounts.

Stars including actress Jennifer Lawrence have threatened to take legal action over the release of the photos.

The company will alert users through email and push notifications when someone tries to change an account password, restore iCloud data to a new device, or when a device logs into an account for the first time, the report said.

Cook said Apple will broaden its use of two-step authentication to avoid future intrusions, the paper added.

Speaking on ITV's This Morning, the actress said: "Whoever has done it, they will be caught and made examples of. This can happen to anyone. If these guys can do it to this group of people then everyone's vulnerable to it.

Her co-star Jason Segel called it "a terrible crime," adding, "It's very easy when you use the word 'celebrity' to take away the human aspect but there is an actual person with a life."

The US tech giant said none of the cases it had so far investigated were a result of its iCloud or Find my iPhone systems being hacked but as a result of a "very targeted attack" on the security procedures of celebrity accounts.

The leaking of the private photos of famous female stars sparked initial suggestions that Apple's iCloud service had been compromised to access the images and leak them across the internet.

After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet.